


Take Me Home

by CasuallySpooky



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy Hargrove Lives, Hospitals, M/M, Post-Season/Series 03, Pre-Slash, gratuitous use of commas, ignore the glaring plot holes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22126957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasuallySpooky/pseuds/CasuallySpooky
Summary: Billy is hospitalised after the events of Starcourt mall and Steve starts visiting him.Two visits is not a pattern, but three days later when Steve was back again, this time with a book and a wry grin, Billy had to admit that maybe he wasn't going to disappear on him.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 5
Kudos: 123





	Take Me Home

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I write fanfic now. This was meant to be a drabble, how did I end up here with over 3000 words?

Billy and Steve fell into a strange almost friendship following Starcourt and the subsequent months Billy spent in the hospital. He'd refused to talk about anything at first, not with the nurses who treated him like a child, he only swore at them. Not with Max who got a softer, but no less insistent, ‘I'm fine’ when she tried to prod him into talking. Neil and Susan didn't visit at all and Billy wasn't surprised or disappointed by that.

What he was surprised by, was Steve's hesitant visit after his first three weeks bed ridden. He'd stepped around the doorframe, unsure, fingers tugging on his hair nervously. He'd stared at Billy for an eternity, trapped in the doorway, shocked by the cuts and bandages littering Billy's face and torso. For the first time since the mall Billy felt self-conscious about them, he'd tugged the sheet further over the bandages and cleared his throat snapping Steve out of whatever trance he'd fallen into.

Steve had spent that visit sitting in a chair right by the doorway, talking at him, updating him on Max's life, all things she'd already told him. But for some reason he couldn't bring himself to tell Steve that he already knew.

After that first visit Billy figured he wouldn't see Steve again, after all, who would want to sit in a bland hospital room with someone who tried to kill them without any decent conversation?

Steve came back two days later, this time he didn't hesitate in the doorway, collapsing straight into his chair by the door and launching into a detailed explanation of some game he played with Max and her nerd friends. His voice only shook a little when he made eye contact with Billy, a brief flicker of uncertainty before he was carried away with broad hand gestures and eye rolls.

Two visits is not a pattern, but three days later when Steve was back again, this time with a book and a wry grin, Billy had to admit that maybe he wasn't going to disappear on him.

The next week Steve migrated to the chair next to Billy's bed with only a moment’s hesitation.

"This one has a foot rest," he'd said, wiggling his eyebrows and swinging his feet up onto Billy's bed.

He'd brought his book again, Lord of the Rings, some nerdy shit, Billy tuned out the words when Steve read, focusing on the soft rise and fall of Steve's voice instead, eyes wandering over the cover of the book and the way Steve's hands curved around the pages. Billy still hadn't said a word to Steve.

The next time Steve visits is earlier in the day, Billy is graced with a rant about work schedules and someone called 'Robin' and heavy sneakers swung unceremoniously onto his spotless blanket, no hesitation in Steve's actions this time.

Steve's tirade is only interrupted by a nurse bustling in, eyes shooting daggers at Steve's feet which are quickly swung back down and tucked under his chair, sheepish expression fixed on his face. The nurse ignores him in favour of tugging Billy's sheet down unceremoniously, they'd gotten a lot more abrupt with him after the third bed pan thrown against the wall in frustration.

The nurse begins peeling back the bandages littering his chest, tutting at the broken skin underneath and pulling out creams and fresh bandages.

Steve hovers just out of his chair, unsure whether to stay or not. He remains trapped there, uncertain, as Billy hisses in pain and the nurse methodically redoes his bandages and disposes of the old ones.

He sinks back into his chair as the nurse bustles back out. They sit in silence for a minute, Steve staring down at the book in his hands, previous comfortable atmosphere shattered. Billy sighs, Steve's unhappy face doing something painful to his chest that has nothing to do with the torn up flesh.

"Are you going to read or not?" he rasps.

Steve is shocked at the sound of Billy's voice but he smiles a tiny smile and opens the book. He stays for three chapters longer than usual that day.  
The next day he’s back at the same time, he waits while a different nurse changes Billy's bandages and gives him a reassuring smile when their eyes meet as Billy clenches the bed sheets in pain. Steve gets a soft, raspy "bye" as he leaves that day.

Their routine continues for a couple more weeks, no more than three days between each of Steve's visits and at least three words from Billy every time, Billy's voice gets better and the nurses get softer with him again, he'd stopped throwing things.

What didn't change was the angry open wounds covering Billy's chest. Steve had been coming earlier in the day ever since he'd first witnessed the bandage change and he hadn't failed to notice the state of Billy's wounds, the nurses' downturned mouths every time they revealed them, the skin that refused to knit back together.

One particular visit Steve is late, hurrying through the hospital halls, he reaches Billy's room just as the nurse leaves, laden with used bandages. She smiles sadly at him as she hurried past, briefly resting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing softly. Steve steps into the room, surprised to see Billy laying with his back turned to the door, sheet pulled up over his body so only a few errant curls peek out.

"Billy?" he mutters softly, stepping closer.

"Didn't think you were coming today Harrington" Billy replies, his voice had gotten stronger, throat healing slowly but today it sounds soft and broken.  
Steve resumes their usual routine, taking his seat next to the bed. Billy's back is still turned and, for the first time in weeks, Steve is unsure of whether he should be there.

"Is something wrong?" he asks, he'd reached a level of comfort with Billy that was unheard of for them but the other boy was volatile and no amount of hospital equipment and bandages could make Steve forget what Billy had been like.

Billy is quiet for a while, so long Steve considers just getting up and leaving, trying another day.

“They're not healing" Billy finally whispers.

Steve's heart sinks, he'd been afraid of this, hoping it was just a slow process, healing that much torn skin, but the wounds still look as angry and red as they had the first time he'd seen them. Even the small gashes over Billy's face are still open.

Steve shifts closer in his chair until his knees are pressed up against the side of the bed. This was unfamiliar territory but he still felt for the boy in front of him.

"They will, they have to, it's going to be fine" Steve winces at his own words, comfort doesn't come very naturally to him. The words don't seem to have an effect on Billy, his hunched form remains where it is.

Steve hesitates for a second before he gets up and moves to the chair on the other side of the bed. What he sees cracks his heart a little, this isn’t the arrogant, hot headed bully who had beaten him to a pulp at the Byers', this isn’t even the Billy who had faced the Mindflayer with tears rolling down his cheeks, defiant until the end. Every move Steve had ever seen Billy make was closely followed by an air of 'fuck you' that was hard not to admire. This Billy has no such confidence or vibrancy, he looks small, smaller than his weakened frame and shrunken muscles, smaller than his flattened dull hair. He looks broken. He looks sad.

"Why are you even here?"

Steve startles, he'd been so caught up in watching Billy he didn't realise Billy was looking at him too.

"I... Uh..." Steve holds up his book helplessly.

"I know but why... Why did you even start visiting me?" Billy asks.

Steve stares at him helplessly, words stuck as he tries to think of something better than 'Max said you looked sad and I can't say no to those kids'.  
Billy sighs and moves to roll away.

"No! Wait I... Uh... I just didn't want you to be alone," he stares earnestly at Billy who freezes and then relaxes back into his cocoon of blankets.  
"Right. Because we're such good friends." Billy stares back at Steve, a spark of anger building in his gaze.

Steve panics a little more at the familiar look of anger, they'd been doing so well. He realises he doesn’t want to go back to what they were before, he'd seen something in Billy that night at Starcourt that he didn't think existed and he doesn’t want to go back to sharp glares and raised fists.

"No, we weren't. We weren't friends, but that doesn't mean we never can be. I'm here because I don't think you deserve to be in here alone. You saved us there, in the end, we all know it, we all saw the strength and courage it took for you to stand up to the Mindflayer, you couldn't have thought you would survive that but you did it anyway."

They stare at each other for a beat.

"It's not fair that we all have someone to lean on except you... Max said you weren't talking so... Here I am..." Steve trails off awkwardly, unsure how Billy will react.

After a minute of awkward silence Steve sighs and moves to stand. Billy's hand shoots out and grabs his wrist, Steve startles, gaping down at him.  
"Read?" comes Billy's soft request, fingers still gripping tightly to Steve's wrist.

"Oh" Steve blinks down at Billy for a moment, Billy's eyes stayed glued to the wall opposite and Steve smiles softly. "Yeah, ok" he sits back down and opens his book. Billy stays hidden under the blankets for the entire visit but the hand that had gripped Steve's wrist stays where it had dropped, hanging over the edge of the bed slightly, inches from Steve's knee.

After that Steve's visits get shorter, he seems more harried, distracted, but Billy treasures the moments he spends listening to Steve's voice. Billy still doesn't talk much but Steve gets better at reading his moods, ruffling his curls when he’s huffy, squeezing his shoulder and whispering "it'll be ok" when he gets quiet and despondent, and on one terrifying occasion for Steve, when he'd seen tears welling up in Billy's eyes, he'd launched into a particularly expressive tale of one of Dustin's ridiculous misadventures that had culminated in such animated hand gestures that Steve had smacked himself in the face with the book he'd forgotten was in his hand. Billy had let out a tiny laugh, the first Steve had heard since before Starcourt, and shocked him into silence.

Max still visited Billy regularly on the days Steve doesn't, the first time Billy had asked her about Steve she'd adopted such a smug grin that he'd immediately regretted ever deciding to talk to her again.

Max never failed to update him on Steve's life outside the hospital after that but, much to Billy's annoyance, refused to tell him what took up so much of his time that he'd previously spent in the hospital reading to Billy.

He was beginning to feel like a petulant child every time he broke and asked Max about it but there wasn't much else to do in the hospital and Billy, horrifyingly, found himself looking forward to Steve's visits more and more.

Since Steve's first visit he hadn't gone more than three days without checking in, they'd almost made it through his book which Billy had failed to pay attention to a single word of, still preferring to focus on the sounds of Steve's voice and the subtle movements of his fingers, only because the book was so boring and nerdy of course.

Now though, now it had been five days with no contact from Steve and only one hurried phone call from Max to say she was too busy to come see him and Steve is fine too, ‘just in case you were wondering'.

He hasn't seen or heard from Steve and Billy is cranky. Not that he would admit it, but the nurses have started avoiding him again and he'd heard them whispering about 'that boy that's always here, what happened?'

He'd finally drifted off to sleep, definitely not thinking about Steve, when whispers and the squeaking of shoes wake him again. Used to the comings and goings of hospital staff at night Billy had just begun to drift off again when he hears the door shutting softly and the sound of someone moving further into the room, that isn’t normal. He sits up, twitching as the stitches in his chest pull slightly at the sudden movement.

There, in the dim light, are Steve and Max, all three of them stare at each other for a beat.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Billy hisses, more than a little worked up at finally seeing the two people who apparently had no other time than the middle of the night to visit him.

Max speaks first, rolling her eyes and huffing before plopping herself down on the end of Billy's bed.

"Come on, I know you missed us asshole, we're here to help," she kicks his foot aside under the blanket and crosses her legs.

Steve moves over a bit slower and Billy feels a jolt of regret at his less than warm greeting. But still...

"Why are you here? It's the middle of the night."

Steve answers by pulling a small jar from the pocket of his pants with a flourish.

"We've been busy hounding Owens at the lab for help with your..." Steve trails off and waves to the general area of Billy's chest. Max rolls her eyes and grabs the jar from Steve's hands.

"Here, Steve made them open up another gate so he could go in and hunt down some plant just so they could make this for you, say thank you" she waves the jar in front of his face.

Billy ignores the jar, staring at Steve, 'go in'? Back into the upside down? For him? Steve avoids eye contact as he explains.

"It wasn't another gate, that would be too dangerous, we just got rid of that place," he pauses and looks Billy in the eye, "you just got rid of that place." This time Billy looks away, uncomfortable with the serious look in Steve's eyes. "There was a bubble left, a 'pocket universe' Dustin called it, doesn’t matter, no Demogorgon's, no Mindflayer, just a disintegrating mess of plants and buildings the lab was trying to destroy... Just in case it was still dangerous."

Billy gapes at him 'just in case? Still dangerous?'.

"Harrington you shouldn't have done that, what if it was still dangerous?"

Steve shakes his head, "It wasn't, it was empty-"

"You had to wear a haz suit and one of the plants tried to eat you." Max deadpans.

Billy raises an eyebrow at Steve but before he can get a word in Steve grabs the jar from Max and pushes Billy back in the bed, a little too forcefully if Billy's sudden lack of breath is anything to go by.

"It doesn't matter what did and didn't have teeth, I got some weird plants, the lab made this and it's gonna heal you, so shut up." He starts tugging at Billy's bandages, hands gentle despite his harsh tone.

Steve had been paying attention when the nurses changed Billy's bandages, his hands are sure and he soon has the bandages removed, he unscrews the jar and the smell hits Billy like a truck. Images of black slime and tentacles fill his vision and he begins to shake.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry" Billy realises Steve is whispering as he swiftly applies a black salve to his wounds, the sound of his voice settles on Billy's ears and he relaxes, focusing on the movements of Steve's hands, softer than any nurse so far. Steve swipes some more salve over the cuts and scratches on Billy's face and then hesitates before pushing the sheet down over Billy's hips, his cheeks tinted pink as he quickly finishes off with a long gash that dips just under Billy's waist band. Steve finishes up with fresh bandages and throws the old ones in the trash bin beside the bed.

"Ok they should start healing normally now, we should go before someone comes to check on you." Steve stands and nudges Max's shoulder to get her moving.

A wounded noise escapes Billy involuntarily as Steve turns away. He closes his eyes, embarrassed, when he opens them a moment later both Steve and Max are staring at him.

"Are you... Uh... When... Fuck never mind," Billy mumbles, gaze fixed on the bed spread.

"I'll be back tomorrow" Steve says "We've still got that book to finish Hargrove." Billy looks up and returns Steve's soft smile. Max raises an eyebrow at her brother, amused.

Billy huffs and flops back down on his bed.

"Get out then, I'm gonna need my sleep if you're gonna bore me to death with more reading tomorrow."

Steve and Max leave quietly but despite his words Billy lays awake thinking about the way his stomach flipped at Steve's parting grin.

The next day Steve is back, earlier than usual, practically vibrating as he sits down in the chair beside the bed.

He lets out a breath of air as he takes a closer look at Billy's face.

"I was worried it would still be black, dunno how we'd explain that to the nurse."

Billy reaches up to poke at his face, feeling the places where the salve had been the night before, no trace of it left. Steve smacks his hand away from the wounds, "don't touch them, who knows where your hands have been," Steve chides.

One side of Billy's mouth ticks up, lude remark on the tip of his tongue, a hint of the old Billy peeking through, when a nurse bustles into the room. Steve isn't sure whether he imagines the look of relief in her eyes when she spots him seated next to her patient but he brushes it off as she unwraps the bandages. She pauses when the first wound is revealed, shocked, a soft "oh" escapes her lips as she stares. The skin is significantly less red and the edges of the gash seem to be knitting back together.

Billy peeks down at her face innocently "What's wrong?" he asks.

She glances up at him, "absolutely nothing," she says, "I believe we're finally seeing progress, the doctor will be thrilled." She shakes off her amazement and finishes the bandaging process with no more surprises.

When she's gone Billy turns to Steve, a grin splits his face and Steve returns it.

"It worked, it actually fucking worked," Billy grins.

"Hey! Of course it worked, Steve Harrington knows what he's doing," Steve retorts, mock frowning.

"Steve Harrington, my hero," Billy winks, amused at the pink that easily stains Steve's cheeks.

The rest of Billy's stay passes quickly, Steve visits almost every day and they finish the book, Billy still has no clue what it's about.

His wounds heal at a rapid pace, amazing the doctors and filling Billy with life again. He still wobbles when he tries to walk, his frame is still smaller and not as muscled as it used to be and he's in dire need of a haircut but he winks at the nurses and ruffles Max's hair when she visits and when he wakes sweating and shaking from a nightmare he knows Steve will be there soon to read his nerdy book and smile at him.

The day that Billy is released Steve is there to greet him. He smirks up at him from his wheelchair in the waiting room, at ease in the other boy’s presence.

"What are you waiting for pretty boy? This chariot isn't gonna push itself."

Steve's unimpressed look makes him laugh, loud and open.

"Hargrove I've seen you walk, you don't need the chair."

Billy leans back further, settling in.

"I'm a hero Steve, heroes don't walk."

It's the use of his first name that does it, Steve rolls his eyes but his cheeks tinge pink and he grabs the handles on Billy's chair.

"Only to the car you idiot, we have to give the chair back."

Billy hums and winks at nurses he recognises on the way out. When they get to the car he stands, only shaking a little and watches Steve who turns and pushes the chair back into the hospital entrance.

When he gets back Billy is lounging in the passenger seat, eyes closed.

"Where am I taking you?" Steve asks.

Billy's smile drops a little.

"Anywhere but Neil's house." Billy responds, voice cracking slightly.

Steve hesitates and clears his throat a couple of times.

"You could, uh... You could stay at my place, my parents are away and we have, like, way too many guest bedrooms."

Billy finally opens his eyes, stares at Steve for a moment in wonder.

"Yeah, yeah that sounds good... Take me home Steve."

Steve smiles softly as he gets in and starts the car.

"To The Shire it is, Samwise Gamgee," Steve laughs.

Billy frowns.

"Who the fuck is Samwise Gamgee?"

**Author's Note:**

> I read another fic where Steve reads The Lord of the Rings (or maybe the Hobbit?) to Billy and I just really liked it so that's where I got that from, I can't remember the name or the author if anyone knows?
> 
> This was meant to be something else entirely with no plot and then I started writing and now I'm making up very poorly thought out lore? Help.


End file.
